Introduction

Ease of Use

An attractively brushed metal slide-open-and-shoot lens cover plus slender dimensions ensure that the 14.1 effective megapixel Lumix DMC-FP3 from Panasonic not so subtly references Sony Cyber-shot snapshots with regard to its style and operation. Like that range it also features cleverly folded optics, here a 4x optical zoom equivalent to 35-140mm on a 35mm film camera, though the main selling/talking point is a 3-inch, 230,400-dot resolution touch screen. This somewhat distracts from the inevitable debate as to whether we actually need 14 megapixels from a snapshot model and whether sticking with fewer pixels would actually yield better results from the 14.5MP 1/2.33-inch CCD here. Plus for those who don't wholeheartedly love touch screens Panasonic has thoughtfully featured a range of operational buttons and controls in tandem with the LCD. This could be viewed as delivering a best of both worlds solution.

There's a simultaneously launched sister model in the FP1 that instead offers a lower 12.1 megapixel resolution and smaller 2.7-inch non-touch LCD. To ensnare the younger audience the FP3 itself is available in a now predictable assortment of colours - five in total.

While the broader than average if ultimately conservative focal range offered by the FP3 should serve point-and-shoot photographers well as a general-purpose tool, there are inevitably better ultra compact options out there for those preferring a wider-angle lens for landscapes and panoramas. There's additionally the option to boost the zoom power to an 8.4x (294mm) equivalent courtesy of what Panasonic terms its Extra Optical Zoom function. Since this uses only the central portion of the CCD - effectively performing a crop - there's a resultant drop in resolution down to three megapixels.

Users do however get the other current 'must have' in that the FP3 can record 16:9 widescreen ratio high definition video clips in motion JPEG format, here at the lower 1280x720p resolution and 30fps frame rate rather than a full HD 1920x1080p, but still better than a standard definition option. That said there is the ability if so desired to indeed record at the lower 640x480 pixels (VGA) or 848x480 (WVGA). All this comes for a fairly reasonable suggested price of £179 in the UK, especially given the build quality and classy looks of our all-black test sample. Sitting comfortably in the palm of your hand and not a great deal wider than a business card (though obviously deeper!) the camera doesn't feel cheap by any means, and is reassuringly solid despite its svelte dimensions and light weight (at 145g including battery and card), thanks to its metal parts augmenting the well-disguised plastic.

Front	Rear

Processing is handled via Panasonic's on-board Venus Engine IV (rather than, curiously, the otherwise available V featuring in the company's FX models) and this helps make the camera as responsive as you'd want it to be, particularly with regard to each exploratory screen press and prod. Its manufacturer claims its inclusion has enabled a shutter as brief as 0.006 second, the ability to lock 'sonic speed' AF on a subject in a blink of an eye (officially 0.33 second) with an impressively brief start up time of a fraction under a second at 0.96.

Other main features of note on the FP3 are available light sensitivity to a maximum ISO6400 equivalent (via the resolution reducing High Sensitivity scene mode, otherwise a maximum ISO1600 manually selectable), and a battery life courtesy of its rechargeable lithium ion pack claimed to last up to 300 shots per charge, according to CIPA testing. As expected, the camera majors on ease of use with Intelligent Auto - which has its own dedicated button on the top plate - meaning that all any user has to do is point the camera at a scene or subject and the FP3, will, in theory adjust settings accordingly to achieve optimum results, with not only face detection technology incorporated but a choice of six settings for the camera to cross reference. These are macro, portrait, scenery, night portrait, night scenery and the new addition of sunset.

The belt and braces of Mega OIS (optical image stabilization) and Intelligent ISO (optimizing shutter speed and boosting ISO) further combine to help reduce the effects of camera shake when shooting in available light without flash. Unsurprisingly the lower or hazier the light the greater the proportion of soft-ish images and especially when there's not really anything in the way of a grip provided on this model to ensure a firm hold, just a small square of plastic nodules top right of the back plate that provide some purchase for the thumb. Holding the camera level in both hands provides the most practical solution, though the user runs the danger of a fingertip from their left hand then straying into shot as the lens is located over to the far side of the faceplate.

The touch screen itself features four main virtual buttons, summoned up with a press of the 'mode' button at the back. With the camera obviously aimed at the non photographer, options are simplified as being for the taking of a 'normal' picture, video recording, selecting from the 25 available scene modes, plus a further 'My Scene' setting. In effect this is a custom mode that retains a user specified scene for speedy access in the heat of the moment. For stills shooting there's the ability to bias the AF toward a certain part of the frame simply by tapping on that portion of the screen, or this feature can be disabled if the little icon that pops up gets too distracting. In playback mode, drawing a finger across the screen lets you 'flick' from one image to the next as if turning the pages of a photo album, literally a nice touch if an inessential one.

Further ease of use is provided via a dedicated Q.Menu button bottom right of the camera backplate that will already be familiar to Panasonic Lumix compact owners. This 'quick menu' function calls up a tool bar on screen that with a finger prod allows the selection and alteration of key shooting functions without otherwise having to delve into the on-screen menus to change the same. The icons are however bunched so closely together that it's easy on occasion to select a setting adjacent to the one you actually wanted.

Like the latest raft of Canon compacts, Panasonic is offering compatibility with the newer very high capacity SDXC media cards alongside the more familiar SD and SDHC variety. These optional extras supplement the 40MB integral memory that allows users to be all too briefly up and shooting out of the box. A card slot is provided alongside the battery at the camera's base, screw thread for a tripod located dead centre, so obviously if you need to swap cards whilst using the camera on a tripod, the whole thing has to be unscrewed.

Top	Side

Overall though the FP3 presents a coolly sophisticated front, an impression which commences with that non-more-minimalist faceplate, Lumix logo-ed lens cover hiding lens itself, self-timer/AF assist lamp plus narrow lozenge-shaped flash.

The narrow metallic top plate, a mere 18.6mm in depth, features a tiny dot housing the built-in microphone, next to the equally small on/off button with a ridged top so your forefinger can actually find it. To the right of these, when viewing the camera from the rear, we find the largest button on the camera - thankfully the shutter release button - which is in turn encircled by a lever for operating the zoom. To the right of this, as on last year's FP8 model, we find the dedicated button for iA, intelligent auto mode, which for some reason features here rather than on the screen itself as a short cut.

Switch the camera on and it indeed powers up more or less instantaneously - which is exactly what you want when quickly retrieving it from a coat or jacket pocket when that photo opportunity has presented itself. The zoom action, whilst it doesn't exactly glide like some of its competitors, is nevertheless smooth, travelling from maximum wideangle to telephoto in around three seconds. Press the shutter release button halfway and the camera determines focus and exposure in under a second too, focus point highlighted in green with a bleep of affirmation that the user is free to go on and take the shot. Do so and a maximum resolution JPEG is written to memory in three seconds, screen briefly going blank before displaying the captured image. With no Quick Zoom button otherwise provided here as on previous models, this is pretty much exactly the performance you'd expect from this class of camera.

Unsurprisingly, just over two thirds of the camera's back plate is swallowed up by the adequate visibility 3-inch 230k-dot resolution LCD on offer for shot composition and review, with the ability to adjust its mode for high angle shooting over the heads of a crowd via the Quick menu button and resulting on screen toolbar as previously mentioned. We say adequate, because like its predecessor in the FP8 while the screen is relatively clear in terms of visibility when shooting outdoors, when panning around rooms indoors there is slight ghosting and image lag visible; not unexpected at the entry level end of the market.

Unusually for a touch screen model however, and again as mentioned in our intro, Panasonic has also incorporated physical controls into the FP3's operation, with a vertically stacked row of five buttons, starting top right of the screen at the camera back with a familiar playback button for reviewing captured images. This is useful as not only does the control fall readily to hand, but with a half press of the shutter release button users can conveniently jump back to capture mode in an instant if a photo opportunity suddenly presents itself.

And not only can the user, in this mode, tap the left and right indicators provided to scroll through images; they can also, as previously indicated, trace a finger across the screen to do the same.

Go on to press the self-explanatory mode button just below playback and, whilst still in review mode, users are prevented with an array of virtual buttons on screen. These present the ability to enjoy, with a further tap, the default setting of 'normal' playback, review the images as a slideshow in camera, or play back images by their category only - for example all images taken on the night time scene mode setting, or all the video clips together, which is a tidy idea. In addition the fourth virtual button allows the playback of favourite images only, whilst a press of the fifth presents an on-screen calendar displaying an image against the day of the week on which it was taken. As you tab around the calendar, again poking at virtual direction buttons, images relevant to adjacent dates pop up; clever, but again a less than essential feature for many. The last, and sixth virtual button on the screen provides the ability to play images back as a series of thumbnails and thus scroll through swathes of images in a matter of seconds to pinpoint the one you want to view, a subsequent double press bringing it up 'full size' on screen.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

Return to image capture mode and press the mode button again and users are offered the choice of taking a 'normal' fully auto picture, selecting one of the pre-optimised 25 scene modes for just about any given subject, or opting for My Scene Mode, whereby the camera is always set to one particular subject of the user's choosing, all of which are again reproduced in slightly superfluous fashion. The last shooting mode option is for video capture, while, as on last year's Photography Blog reviewed FP8 model from Panasonic, a press of the dedicated iA button to the right of the shutter release on the camera's top plate lets the user quickly flip between fully auto capture and whatever alternative mode was last in use - a straightforward process.

The next (third) button down of the FP3's non-virtual back plate controls is marked display. A press of this removes the on-screen icons, including those indicating battery life, megapixel mode and number of shots remaining, to present a clear view of your scene or subject. A subsequent press brings up a nine zone compositional grid for those practicing the rule of thirds.

The fourth button down is the one marked with a self-explanatory 'menu'. A press of this brings up on screen a choice of two folders - one a four screen shooting menu, its options presented on screen-wide bars stacked three at a time so presentation is both simple and they're easy to press, the other a set up menu presented across six subsequent screens. Neither offers much in the way of manual control, unless you count being able to adjust white balance, ISO and exposure compensation from +/- 2EV, and turn on or off the digital zoom. But, again, this makes for straightforward, user friendly operation of what, at the end of the day is ultimately 'just' a point and shoot camera.

Below the menu the button things get slightly more interesting with the last button on the camera back for the aforementioned quick menu. The toolbar this presents, with icons running across the top of the screen and drop down options appearing when each is pressed, firstly allows different image stabilizer modes to be selected with - if you subsequently press the 'display' button - an on-screen graphical demo provided of what the different settings do. The next option is the ability to switch to burst shooting - with either 1.5 frames per second or 4.6fps offered depending on the level of quality the user is looking to achieve - followed by the ability to adjust AF from one point to nine points or activate face detection. Adjacent to these are options for adjusting white balance, ISO (ISO80-1600), resolution (from maximum 14MP down to 0.3MP, or opt for a 10.5MP widescreen ratio crop), choosing an LCD operational mode, and when in 'normal' auto mode further adjusting exposure compensation, choosing macro, activating a self timer and adjusting flash options.

At each stage in the proceedings an 'exit' button is provided to take you quickly and easily out of whatever selection you're in. Incidentally when in playback, this Quick Menu button doubles up as a delete button, which is useful and saves wading into menus to achieve the same.

Whilst that's about it for operational controls at back of the FP3, the left hand side of the camera is devoid of any features at all, whilst the right incorporates a thumb-opened flap protecting separate ports for USB out, AV out and mains power in. The base of the camera we've already described.

Whilst it takes a little while to familiarise yourself with how the FP3's array of physical buttons and virtual controls work in tandem with one another, this quickly becomes second nature and operation can be achieved without recourse to the manual, the full version of which is only miserly provided on CD with otherwise a quick look pamphlet included in the box.

That leaves us to examine how the FP3 stacks up in terms of its image quality. Has Panasonic over egged the pudding with its 14 megapixels on a small-ish sensor, or created a near perfect recipe? Read on to find out…

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 14 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5Mb.

On a clear day with bold blue skies the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3 delivers a sterling performance, with vibrant colour reproduction, commendably even exposures and edge-to-edge sharpness. But these are ideal conditions for the photographer, and the only nit we can pick here regards the Panasonic group's occasional tendency to render natural blue skies a shade of turquoise when there is a lot of natural green foliage in the foreground.

On overcast days it can't quite pull the same colour-rich tricks out of the bag however, providing a more washed out look, though again good exposure latitude is delivered. The same can't quite be said when shooting interiors without flash - especially when the camera is left on iAuto - whereby there's a tendency, when the flash is manually disabled, to boost the ISO until images taken in seemingly sufficient natural daylight begin to appear quite noisy/grainy; a product of too many pixels for the chip in question?

Inevitably there are instances of pixel fringing visible when zooming in close on detail, but again such artifacts are quite subtle and most users would never notice even if they were printing up to poster size. So, on the whole, and when used as a general purpose tool, the FP3 acquits itself quite well and would be a good reliable choice for the undemanding snapper who just wants to point and shoot and let the camera worry about whatever settings will get the best out of a given scene or subject.

As suspected noise starts to intrude in shaded areas of the FP3's images from ISO 400, becoming noticeable across the entirety of the image as fine ‘grit' at ISO 800. At ISO 1600 images are not only gritty in appearance but we're also beginning to lose definition, with a smudged, watercolour-like appearance suggesting Panasonic was chancing its arm even going as high as ISO 1600 with a 14MP chip. Given this you don't actually lose anything (except pixels) in opting for ISO 1600 High Sensitivity mode as the resolution drop slightly disguises the grain and so directs attention back to the subject itself.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 80 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can change the in-camera sharpening level via the Picture Adjust menu option.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3 handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review, with very limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the example below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 3cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3 are Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Forced On, Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction, Forced Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Forced Off - Wide Angle (35mm)	Forced On - Wide Angle (35mm)
Forced Off - Telephoto (140mm)	Forced On - Telephoto (140mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Auto/Red-eye Reduction settings caused any red-eye.

Forced On	Forced On (100% Crop)
Auto/Red-eye Reduction	Auto/Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3's maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 4 seconds at ISO 80. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like. The camera takes the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so for example at the 15 second setting the actual exposure takes 30 seconds.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3 camera, which were all taken using the 14 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Lens Open

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

So do the features of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3 collectively stack up to offer yet another candidate for the casual photographer's perfect travel companion? The inclusion of HD video (but not HDMI connectivity) alongside the whopping stills resolution is a bonus, as is the slightly bigger zoom capacity than usually found in this class of compact, but ultimately there's little that's revolutionary about this camera. That's OK, because for the very reasonable £179 asking price we didn't expect miracles.

It's not however a camera you want to be using in low light and its performance at ISO 400 and above was poor, albeit still usable given that its target audience of happy snappers won't be overly critical regarding such matters.

On a more positive note it quickly becomes second nature to use buttons and touch screen in tandem with each other which suggests these have been well implemented and integrated, and overall, the touch screen is not just purely present here as a gimmick. So if you're looking for a portable holiday camera first and foremost without breaking the bank - and you're sure to be traveling in sunnier climes - the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP3 should fit the bill.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	3.5
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	3.5
Value for money	4

Specifications

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